Editor -- Regarding the Louis Freedberg "Personal Perspective" column, "College for all Californians?" (Jan. 30): It seems to me that former San Diego Rep. Brian Bilbray is against allowing illegal immigrants to pursue greater education. These are people -- often of low income -- who have completed high school and want to enroll in college to receive further education and improve their futures.

Thanks to the 2001 state law (AB540), more undocumented students can attend California colleges by allowing them to pay in-state tuition fees, regardless of their immigration status. People who normally would not have the means to go to college otherwise finally have that opportunity. More people can get the education they need to become successful members in society and fully participate in our workforce. Isn't that a good thing?

I see education as the purest form of freedom known to man. It frees us from a number of prisons -- some built by society and some fashioned by our own ignorance. The reality is that the more education one has, the better his or her chances of becoming productive members of society. Why does this former congressman have a problem with more people receiving higher education?

While Bilbray is off campaigning to restrict the benefits for illegal immigrants, more and more members of California's undocumented population are not reaching their full potential. The greatest thing about America is the people's ability to move within its social structure. By limiting the opportunities of its people, the American dream is lost.

VINNEY LE

Terra Linda High School

San Rafael

Public service

Editor -- If highly intelligent, educated, competent people are willing to forgo high corporate rewards in order to take on the honor and obligations of performing public service as presidents, senators, governors, mayors, judges, etc. -- should not university presidents, chancellors and other high administrators in publicly supported institutions show the same devotion to public service without claiming greater compensations than those public servants?

SOL FISHER

Pleasant Hill

Hope for foster youth

Editor -- It is awesome and surreal to see articles about foster youth in the paper, since I am one. I was at the rally that you editorialized about on Tuesday.

California Youth Connection is not just an organization, it's my community and family. It brings out the hidden potential in people. Before them, I wouldn't look at people while talking, but now I am speaking across the country to audiences of hundreds of people. I just wish that more youth were involved. Through CYC, I have had so many doors open to me, as have many others. This year, I did have a chance to speak at the rally, but decided to step down to let others have their time. I have enough under my belt.

And to all youth who might read this, know that it will get better, just don't lose hope.

ANTHONY PICO

San Francisco

Lead by example

Editor -- The United States should seize the opportunity provided by Iran's nuclear development to renew the call for a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East.

How hypocritical for the United States to call for Iranian compliance with nonproliferation when the U.S. government has about 10,000 nuclear weapons for possible use. We should set an example for the world by reducing our own weapons of mass destruction. The billions saved from arms reductions (and the halting of the development of new and more deadly arms) would be better spent on education and health issues.

ALLAN FISHER

San Francisco

Step one for Bush

Editor -- President Bush has admitted our nation's addiction to oil, but he's still caught at the first step of recovery: denial. More energy won't come from wishful thinking that technology will give it to us.

A good start would be to immediately reverse the decline of our freight and passenger rail network and remove our dependence on the interstate highway system. Expensive, you say? Repairing the levees in New Orleans before the storm would have been expensive, too.

We need to put the resources we have poured into a failed attempt to control the Middle East gas station into a drastic retooling of our country to make it through the era beyond peak oil.

JON WINSTON

San Francisco

No surprise here

Editor -- It's simply not credible for President Bush, CIA Director Porter Goss or anyone else to say that news reports of warrantless eavesdropping on Americans have tipped our enemies to things they didn't already know.

If you were a terrorist operating anywhere in the world, especially inside the United States, wouldn't you presume the most technologically advanced nation in the world is doing everything it can to intercept and monitor all your communications, especially those using phones and the Internet?

Everyone following the story knows the Americans had Osama bin Laden located by tracking his satellite phone. For the Bush administration to say terrorists didn't know they were being watched and listened to is ridiculous on its face and an insult to the intelligence of all of us.

Editor -- Even if San Francisco city employees drank tap water from Hetch Hetchy, all city buildings would need a significant supply of bottled water standing by in case there were a major earthquake and the water lines were disrupted.

Water in bottles only lasts so long before it has to be changed out and the water dumped down the drain. This need and the responsibility of the city to its employees should also be considered in the analysis of how best to supply drinking water to city employees.

KEN NIEMI

Berkeley

Old-fashioned idea

Editor -- Someone in San Francisco City Hall should consider water fountains. No bottles are necessary.

STEVE HAYES

Belmont

Steam-clean Congress?

Editor -- Under the new rules just passed by the House of Representatives ("DeLay protege upset by Ohio Republican," Feb. 3) former lawmakers turned lobbyists will be denied access to the Capitol gym. Does that mean there is dirty work in the gym that showering doesn't wash off?

ANNA GARLUND

San Francisco

Two-way street

Editor -- So, we should feel disgraced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, because she issued a State of the Union gallery pass to Cindy Sheehan?

KEN DOTSON

Burlingame

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